Public backs fines for misuse of parent and child parking

Matt Allan

Published:6:05 amSeptember 11, 2017

More than half of the British public believe that drivers who abuse parent and child parking spaces should face fines.

Spaces marked out for family use usually have more space around them, are more accessible and often closer to the store entrance and their use and abuse is a sore topic among many drivers. Now a new survey has found support for fines and even bans on those who take advantage of them.

Just over 60 per cent of those questioned for the poll said that drivers who use the spaces when they don’t have a child in the car should be fined, with a third backing fees of up to £25 and a quarter calling for fines of more than £25.

One in ten said they would even support temporarily banning the driver from the store.

Harrison Woods, managing director at online parking portal YourParkingSpace.co.uk which commissioned the survey, said: “Parent-and-child parking at supermarkets is a hot topic and often creates strong opinion, as demonstrated by our survey results which show most people want some sort of punishment for motorists who use supermarket parent-and-child parking spaces when they shouldn’t be.”

While parking in store car parks isn’t controlled by councils or police, many stores, including the large supermarket chains use private parking companies to oversee their car parks and issue parking charge notices where their rules are infringed. Last year Tesco even trialled equipping store staff with a smartphone app to record evidence of incorrect customer parking which was then used to issue charges.

The study also found that while most people (69 per cent) said supermarkets should provide parent and child spaces but there was disagreement over the limits on their use. Currently most supermarkets say the spaces are for parents with children up to the age of 12 but only 17 per cent back such a high limit, with more than a third believing there should be an age cap of just five years old.